The Independent on Sunday

Opera Now

Choir and Organ

Will Todd – Composer

English composer Will Todd is well known for his beautiful and exciting music. His work encompasses choral works large and small, opera, musical theatre and orchestral pieces, as well as jazz compositions and chamber works.

His anthem, The Call of Wisdom, was performed at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations with a TV audience of 45 million people. His breakthrough work, Mass in Blue (originally titled Jazz Mass), has been performed hundreds of times all over the world. His arrangement of Amazing Grace was performed at President Obama’s Inauguration Day prayer service in 2013 and as part of the BBC’s Nelson Mandela Thanksgiving Service.

He has collaborated with award winning choirs The Sixteen and Tenebrae, as well as with the BBC Singers, BBC Concert Orchestra, The Halle Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, Opera Holland Park, Welsh National Opera, The Bach Choir, St Martin’s Voices and The Genesis Foundation.

His discography includes best selling choral discs Lux Et Veritas and The Call of Wisdom, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Mass in Blue and Ode to a Nightingale all on the Signum Classic label. His music is regularly broadcast on Classic FM, as well as on BBC Radio 3.

Will Todd’s music is valued for its melodic intensity and harmonic skill, often incorporating jazz colours, and his choral music is much in demand from amateur as well as professional performers.

Recent commissions include a choral piece for the BBC’s Great North Passion, an oratorio for The Bach Choir written with former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen and a commission for Church of the Presidents, St John’s Lafayette Square, Washington DC. His clarinet concerto recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra and Emma Johnson was released in 2016. International composer Will Todd is currently working on commissions from U.K., the Netherlands, the U.S. and Canada.